"Best Practice in English Language Arts" By: Steven Zemelman, Harvey Daniels, and Arthur Hyde
Purpose of Article: The article gives recommendations on best practices when teaching reading and writing to students.The article has a list of instructional strategies that will both increase and decrease student achievement in reading and writing.
Strategies That Increase Student Achievement in Reading:
Read aloud to students
Give students time for independent reading
Allow students to chose their own reading materials
Expose students to a diverse and rich range of literature
Teachers should discuss and model their own reading process
The primary instructional emphasis should be on comprehension
Teach reading as a process
-Use strategies that activate prior knowledge -Help students make and test predictions -Structure help during reading -Provide after-reading applications
Use social, collaborative activities that include a lot of discussion and interaction
Group students by interests or book choices
Follow silent reading with discussions
Teach various skill within the context of whole and meaningful literature
Write before and after reading
Encourage invented spelling in student’s early writing
Use reading in all content fields (literature can apply to Math and Science as it does English or History)
Measure the success of a class reading program by the students’ reading habits, attitudes, and comprehension
Strategies That Increase Student Achievement in Writing:
Student ownership and responsibility
-Help student chose their own topics and goals for improvement -Use brief teacher-student conferences -Teach students to review their own progress
Allow class time spent on writing whole, original pieces
-Establish real purposes for writing and student involvement in tasks -Give instruction in and support for all stages of the writing process -Prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing ·Model writing for students to demonstrate the process and be a fellow author ·Teach grammar and mechanics in context, during editing, and as items are needed ·Write and publish for the class and/or the wider communities; real world and audiences ·Make a classroom that is supportive for shared learning -Active exchange and valuing of students’ ideas -Collaborative small-group work -Conferences and peer critiquing that makes the students responsible for improvement ·Use writing across the curriculum as a tool for learning ·Use constructive and efficient evaluation that includes: -Brief informal responses as students work -Thorough grading of just a few of student-selected, polished pieces -Focus on a few errors at a time -Cumulative view of growth and self-evaluation -Encourage risk taking and honest expression
To read the original article, please follow this link: Best Practice.pdf
Purpose of Article:
The article gives recommendations on best practices when teaching reading and writing to students. The article has a list of instructional strategies that will both increase and decrease student achievement in reading and writing.
Strategies That Increase Student Achievement in Reading:
- Read aloud to students
- Give students time for independent reading
- Allow students to chose their own reading materials
- Expose students to a diverse and rich range of literature
- Teachers should discuss and model their own reading process
- The primary instructional emphasis should be on comprehension
- Teach reading as a process
- Use strategies that activate prior knowledge- Help students make and test predictions
- Structure help during reading
- Provide after-reading applications
Strategies That Increase Student Achievement in Writing:
- Student ownership and responsibility
- Help student chose their own topics and goals for improvement- Use brief teacher-student conferences
- Teach students to review their own progress
- Allow class time spent on writing whole, original pieces
- Establish real purposes for writing and student involvement in tasks- Give instruction in and support for all stages of the writing process
- Prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing
· Model writing for students to demonstrate the process and be a fellow author
· Teach grammar and mechanics in context, during editing, and as items are needed
· Write and publish for the class and/or the wider communities; real world and audiences
· Make a classroom that is supportive for shared learning
- Active exchange and valuing of students’ ideas
- Collaborative small-group work
- Conferences and peer critiquing that makes the students responsible for improvement
· Use writing across the curriculum as a tool for learning
· Use constructive and efficient evaluation that includes:
- Brief informal responses as students work
- Thorough grading of just a few of student-selected, polished pieces
- Focus on a few errors at a time
- Cumulative view of growth and self-evaluation
- Encourage risk taking and honest expression
To read the original article, please follow this link: Best Practice.pdf